29 
people remember to have observed it earlier than 1880.” The disease 
is widely distributed in Florida and has by no means run out, but, on 
the contrary, seems to be gradually spreading. It has also appeared 
in Louisiana and California, where, in places, it is said to be very 
destructive. 
The damage caused by foot rot is very great and without question 
much more than that caused by any other orange disease. The first 
season after the trees are attacked they may bear an unusually large 
crop of fruit, but this is generally the last full crop produced. By the 
next season the tree is either killed or else so reduced that it can not 
support much fruit. Sometimes trees are nearly girdled in the space 
of afew months. Whole groves have been entirely destroyed in the 
course of a few years. Briosi describes its effect in Italy and Sicily as 
being most serious; he estimates the damage done in Italy from 1862 
to 1878 at more than $2,000,000. In Florida many fine bearing groves 
have been almost totally destroyed, but the malady does not appear to 
be so severe here as in some foreign countries. ‘The annual damage it 
causes in Florida is estimated at about $100,000. 
Symptoms.—The first symptom of foot rot is an abundant exudation 
| of drops of gum on the trunk of the tree near the base. This occurs 
| over a limited portion of the bark in the first stages of the disease, and 
may appear in one or several distinct patches. In this stage the bark 
will be found to be discolored, having become brownish, and to contain 
| numerous cavities filled with gum. Theinner bark becomes watery and 
more or less rotten, and has a very disagreeable, fetid odor. As the 
malady develops the demarkation between the healthy bark and the 
diseased patches becomes very apparent. The plant endeavors to throw 
| off the disease and a separative layer is formed between the healthy and 
diseased portions. The patch of diseased bark thus delimited dries up, 
the edges break away where the separative layer is formed and gradually 
curve up in drying. Finally the patches of diseased bark are thrown 
off (fig. 5). The death and decay of the tissues caused by the disease 
extend through the bark and apparently for some distance into the 
wood. The cambium layer, the most vital part of the tree, situated 
between the bark and the wood, is destroyed, and when the bark is 
thrown off there is no possibility of new bark growing over that portion. 
The patches of bark which first become diseased are irregular in shape 
and vary greatly in size, but are usually from 1 to 4 inches in diameter. 
The exudation of gum occurs principally in the spring or in early 
autumn, after the rainy season, while delimitation and detachment of 
the bark usually take place during the summer or winter. 
As the disease progresses gum exudes on other portions of the bark, 
which are in turn thrown off. It is quite common for a circle of bark 
surrounding an old diseased spot to become affected and be thrown off, 
thus enlarging the spot. The malady gradually spreads in all direc- 
tions, but principally down on the main crown roots and around the 
